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BANGKOK, Thailand - An Associated Press reporter in Vietnam has been detained and beaten by police while he covered a Catholic prayer vigil in the communist country.

Ben Stocking, the Hanoi bureau chief for The Associated Press, was released from police custody Friday after about 2 hours and required four stitches on the back of his head.

Stocking said he was taken to a police station for questioning, where an officer "banged me on the head with the camera and another police officer punched me in the face, straight on."

On Saturday, Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung denied that Vietnamese authorities beat Stocking.

"There was no beating of Mr. Ben Stocking by the Vietnamese security force," read a statement posted on the foreign ministry Web site.